US warns Israel to boost humanitarian aid into Gaza or risk losing weapons funding
Israel told to take specific actions within 30 days, in the strongest US warning since the Gaza war began a year ago
The Biden administration has warned Israel that it must increase the amount of humanitarian aid it is allowing into Gaza within the next 30 days or it could risk losing access to US weapons funding.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin warned their Israeli counterparts in a letter dated Sunday that the changes must occur.
The letter, which restates US policy toward humanitarian aid and arms transfers, was sent amid deteriorating conditions in northern Gaza and an Israeli air strike on a hospital tent site in central Gaza that killed at least four people and burned others.
A similar letter that Blinken sent to Israeli officials in April led to more humanitarian assistance getting to the Palestinian territory, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Tuesday. But that has not lasted.
“In fact, it’s fallen by over 50 per cent from where it was at its peak,” Miller said at a briefing. Blinken and Austin “thought it was appropriate to make clear to the government of Israel that there are changes that they need to make again, to see that the level of assistance making it into Gaza comes back up from the very, very low levels that it is at today”.
